Movie review: ‘McQueen’ documents the life of a fashion icon

Thursday

“You want to know me, just look at my work.” Those words, spoken by late British avant-garde fashion designer Alexander McQueen, are the common thread throughout the new documentary, “McQueen.”

Director Ian Bonhôte and co-director/writer Peter Ettedgui present a portrait of “Fashion’s Bad Boy” through the lens of his astounding fashion shows that mixed design, technology and theater. McQueen committed suicide in February 2010. He was 40.

The filmmakers rely on archival video footage, press clippings and interviews with McQueen’s nearest and dearest, including his sister, Janet, her son, Gary, and handful of fashion industry folks and models. The result is an entirely watchable and engrossing take on the duality of McQueen’s life, even if the filmmakers are a bit adulatory. They spend a lot of time building up McQueen, showing him pre-fame as a guy who loves his dogs, his mom and his fabrics. They gloss over the bits about McQueen’s childhood sexual abuse, growing drug habit and pervasive paranoia. Those topics are mentioned, but not explored. The focus, really, is on the clothes and the creative process.

We first meet the provocative young designer when he was starting out in the fashion world in London’s East End where he was known to his family and friends as “Lee.” Chubby, gay and the son of a taxi driver, Lee received his training at the prestigious Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design. He worked for traditional Savile Row tailors before branching out on his own to push the boundaries of fashion. His most controversial collection and show, “Highland Rape” “made every headline.” But McQueen continued to shock and awe with shows and creations that featured models dressed like feral beasts, and others inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, H.G. Wells and robots. In 1996, he became chief designer at the renowned Givenchy house and moved to Gucci as creative director in 2001.

Like many other creative geniuses, the more money he made, the more he suffered. His bizarre and dramatic fashion shows, which were once the highlight of Paris fashion week, grew aggressive and dark. Just like McQueen, according to McQueen’s former assistant, Sebastian Pons.

Drug problems followed. At the pinnacle of his success, McQueen was found dead in his home on the eve of his mother’s funeral. McQueen was a legend, and his reverence didn’t diminish in death. His posthumous 2011 exhibit, “Savage Beauty,” drew more than a million people to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His death was eight years ago, but the tragedy remains fresh given the recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. The movie proffers it was the dark side of fame that contributed to McQueen’s demise, even though he once described himself as a “good fighter.” That’s hard to shake.